b-side's Big Weekend

b-side’s Big Weekend honours the spirit of Portland and Weymouth as Towns of Culture 2025, revealing untold stories from our island.
With inspirational artists and communities as your guide, discover memories from the armed forces, moments of joy and resilience in LGBTQ+ lives, and heartfelt testimonies from those seeking asylum.

Whether you’re joining a mass stitching workshop to complete the Portland Dress, or dancing in a boxing ring, come celebrate the extraordinary people, captivating stories, and creative spirit that make Portland truly unique.

This year’s highlights include:
• Pub Grub by Luke Wright: fun and filthy poems from someone who knows what they’re doing. If there were any justice he’d be Poet Laureate - or King. After selling out shows across the country with JOY!, Luke Wright is back with a sticky-floored celebration of the ordinary, conjuring up Tuesday lunchtimes and small-town boozers in poems that burst with inventive language. Forget your “best life” - come and live your worst. Wright’s audacious rhymes, sonic trickery, and big-hearted storytelling will leave you light-headed, with loads of laughs, a few more coins in the swear jar, and a sore head in the morning. Doors open 7pm, age advisory 14+ (includes swearing).


• Excess Baggage: a video and sound installation exploring the overlooked stories of military families, centring on Portland’s naval past. Drawing on the artist’s own childhood in Wyke Regis during the 1970s and stories from local people, Excess Baggage captures the textures and contradictions of life in this often-invisible subculture. Presented in the dark chambers of High Angle Battery, the immersive installation invites audiences to re-think what service, family, and memory mean when the personal and national are tightly entwined.


• MAS(S): a powerful new sound art project by Tristan Shorr and Rae Champion (CONCRETE) with Lomond Campbell, exploring migration, refugees, war, and loss through the human voice. Generative sound sculptures turn the audio testimonies of refugees into a multi-channel immersive experience, culminating in a voice siren that calls out along the British coastline - inviting audiences to walk together with the siren, mapping our borders in sound.


• Parade 2025: now in its fifth year and getting weirder every year - just the way we like it! Everyone is invited to this free, celebratory parade through the streets of Portland, led by artists, b-side volunteers, and you. Bring your friends, family, sports team, knitting club, or just yourself, there’s a warm welcome for all. Dress up in your weirdest, meet at Easton Gardens at 6pm, and parade like you mean it to the upbeat live soundtrack of Tongues of Fire, playing New Orleans grooves, ska, funk, and more. The route runs from Easton Square to Portland Museum and back, with a road closure providing space for everyone to dance and celebrate. The route is fully accessible, and anyone who identifies as disabled is especially encouraged to take part, access support is available by contacting catherine@b-side.org.uk. If you can’t parade, come and wave and cheer the Paraders on!


• The Portland Dress: come and see The Portland Dress make its public debut. Inspired by The Red Dress’s visit to Portland in 2024, a sister dress has been slowly and gently collecting the stories of Portland - thread by thread. In the spirit of The Red Dress and the 1978 Portland embroideries, this textile narrative of community voices is an archive of this time and this place. Over 300 local people and those with connections to Portland have contributed through free public workshops, home visits, and meetings in community groups, coffee shops, and a pub - with the call to join in travelling far and wide.


• Almost Synchro: a lively and inclusive open-water synchronised swimming performance and workshop by a Bristol-based team. Taking place at high tide in Portland Harbour, the team will perform two choreographed routines and invite members of the local sea-swimming community to join an on-land workshop and take their own short routine into the sea. With colourful swim caps, laughter, camaraderie, and the joy of synchro swimming, the event welcomes experienced open-water swimmers to learn, take part, and even form their own teams in the future.


• Section 28 and Me: theatre-maker Tom Marshman invites audiences into his creative process as he unpacks the legacy of Section 28 - the law that silenced LGBTQ+ voices in schools from 1988 to 2003. Part performance, part presentation, this special edition reflects on stories gathered from queer communities across the UK, including a powerful gathering in Portland hosted by b-side’s LGBT+side group. Through humour, memory, and deeply personal reflections, even from his dad, Tom examines how Section 28 shaped him and others. The result is a moving and mischievous celebration of queer resilience, challenging the shame and silence of that era with honesty, warmth, and pride.


This year’s Big Weekend also forms a key part of the Portland & Weymouth Towns of Culture 2025, an ambitious programme celebrating the creativity, heritage, and communities of both towns. The Big Weekend embodies the spirit of the Towns of Culture initiative, showcasing local talent alongside international artists and bringing residents and visitors together to experience the area’s rich cultural life in unexpected and inspiring ways.

Alongside the main programme, this year also sees the return of the FRINGE - a parallel series of independently-organised events showcasing even more of Portland’s vibrant creative community. The Fringe includes exhibitions, performances and pop-up happenings that complement the main programme and invite further exploration.

More information:
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